A post about 25 Eco-Chic Ideas for Your Home on AT:SF and Re-Nest got us thinking about grilling. What can we say? We're a little obsessed this month.
The post highlighted an article by eco guru Danny Seo who suggested, among other things, to make homemade fire starters with newspaper, herbs and pine cones and use them in place of composite firelogs and lighter fluid for winter fires.
So, we're wondering – could they be used to start a fire with a charcoal grill?
As we've mentioned, we're fairly new to grilling, so we're still looking for the best way to start our charcoal grill. With no room to grill at our place, we use a small travel grill that fits into a cooler bag, so a chimney starter isn't the best option for portability. A couple of little newspaper bundles would easily fit into a side pocket.
We came across another DIY fire starter project that uses leftover candle wax, sawdust and egg cartons.
Anyone tried something like this? We'd love to hear your thoughts.
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You don't even need something that complicated. A chimney starter is your best friend--just two half-sheets of newspaper coiled around the bottom, then filled with natural hardwood charcoal (like Cowboy) will light just fine.
You can see an illustration here:
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/chimney.html
The chimney starter also allows you to distribute the hot coals where you need them, based on the type of grilling/barbecuing you're going to do.
Good luck!
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Oh, I should add: you can always choose not to fill the chimney starter completely. But we couldn't get by without one, even for lighting a small grill.
If you use pine cones, et al, for lighting your barbecue, you're going to taste it.
view ricestein's profile
Here are two more great tips I've used in the past:
Cut up or fold newspapers and create a stack that's 2" wide by 1" long and 1" high. Tie them up with a string and leave an extra bit of string. Dip each stack into hot wax. Perfect firestarter.
When wrapping pine cones or other woods into newspaper, include some dryer lint. That stuff is super flammable and we've all got some.
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I see my wife posted above re the chimney starter, but I'm going to add to something she said in response to SammyJ: If you don't want to taste it, don't make a fire with it.
Starting a grill is not at all like making a fire. You want smoldering coals (or hardwood), not flames. In grilling and barbecuing, flames are bad. And if your flames are fueled by pine cones and dryer lint, then your food will taste like it. That's why lighter fluid is bad. Your food ends up tasting like it was doused in the stuff.
Keep it simple. If your grill is small and you want the solution to be portable, consider a DIY chimney starter. You can make probably make a decent one out of a coffee can or even get a cylinder of metal cut to a custom size.
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The thing about chimney starters is that they are a bit big, if space is at a premium.
I'm curious how minimal you might be able to make a chimney, and have it still work. I've never tried this, but if you had decent skills with a pair of pliers, and some heavy-gauge wire (like a wire hanger with the plastic removed), you might be able to make a collapsible skeleton that could be wrapped with tin-foil to make a chimney. Then re-use the foil to scrape the grill, when the coals have caught.
The risk is that the foil will catch fire, as the coals at the bottom get plenty hot, and foil does burn.
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